Four People Luka Won't Fall In Love With
by surestsmile
Summary: And one she did.


Four People Luka Won't Fall In Love With (And One She Did)

Marvelous

Luka thinks that she ought to feel drawn to Marvelous. He's very charismatic, she gives him that, with his wide toothy grin and flashy words and that incorrigible arrogance. The girls that flock to Marvelous when they visit bars attest to that too, but Luka is more interested in picking the pockets of the drunkenly careless than to pay attention to the fawning.

She's had sex with him, of course. There are times when things get a little heated, Marvelous too indolent to get out of bed, much less the galleon and he's not a bad lover as long as she plays up to his whims and fancies. Sometimes she's the one who initiates it, and those are the times she thinks he really, really likes it, lazy bastard, because all he needs to do then is to lie down and take it.

But Marvelous is her captain. She'd die for him (probably, possibly, _maybe_) because that's what crewmembers do. While Luka figures that she's pretty mercenary when it comes to living and dying, she knows that Marvelous has her back when it comes down to it, and that's what keeps her with him.

She does not love him. She is fond of him, even when he hocks her jewels without asking for permission. He usually ends up plying her with more anyway, each one prettier and more precious than the one before, but Luka knows he's not buying her loyalty, or her love.

She's okay with that. Luka knows she's not one for love anyway.

Joe

She loves fighting with Joe. Luka doesn't like fighting in general, but to have someone teach her how to block and attack properly, anything that will let her to improve her chances at survival is something Luka won't say no to.

It surprises Luka that Joe is actually a very tactile teacher. In her days with them, Joe is the one who keeps to himself the most out of the three of them, often sitting quietly in the corner, contented to merely observe. So when he takes her hand and guides her in the proper sword form as usual, chest pressed close to her back, she cannot help but tease her serious crewmate.

"That's a nice body you have there," she says, and it's funny how fast he stiffens and moves himself to a more appropriate distance. Their training seems to have been momentarily forgotten, and Joe is flushing. It's quite cute and she quickly re-closes the distance between them, balances herself on the balls of her feet and gives him a kiss. He doesn't shy away, and she grins, looping her hands around his neck.

"What, no calling me Marvelous this time?" she says.

It's her little joke with Joe, born from a particularly memorable incident when they were sleeping together, and he had moaned out their captain's name. It was his explanation that soothed her initial indignation then, a very flustered, "You're like a female version of him." Luka isn't sure if she is supposed to be insulted or flattered, but Joe had looked so embarassed to have made that mistake that she chose to forgive him.

"You like the captain?" she had asked, more for the sake of sating her curiosity than anything else. Joe's answering snort of, "Who doesn't?" made her bend over him, pressing her own bare chest against his and cooing, "Well, we'll always have each other, right?"

Joe's smile then is the same as now, small and derisive and she's fond of him too, for all his boyish strengths and all his little inadequacies. But Joe's not for her to fall in love with either. His eyes are reserved for another, and with eyes as sharp as hers, Luka knows that she can't hope to compete.

But it won't stop her from having her fun.

"I wonder if Marvelous would say yes tonight," she says, and laughs when Joe cheekily replies, "Let's go ask."

Don

He's a strange one. Perhaps it's because she's different from her captain and his first mate, and that's why he's drawn to her. She quickly disabuses him of the notion that she's softer than the other two, yet Don continues to dog her footsteps, turning to her when things go wrong with the galleon. She's often at a loss herself, and the frustrating thing is, Luka knows that Don knows what to do, how to fix the things that are broken. She just doesn't understand why he wants to keep relying on her.

"Maybe he likes you," Marvelous says once, off-handedly and in front of everyone, and Luka quickly turns to Don, who only gives her a panic-striken look and quick frantic shakes of his blond head. Luka tilts her chin imperiously, and says, "If Doc grows a bit of a spine, maybe I'd like him back."

She doesn't mean to get so antagonistic, really. There are things that Don does which she appreciates, like the time when she's laid up sick as a dog, down with some space flu. Marvelous had backed up rather quickly, as he was wont to do, pushing her at Joe and Don.

Joe, for his part, did try to make her feel better. But his variant of doctoring involved making cakes, which Luka would have happily accepted at any other time. Luka suspects that Joe's reaction is in part learned from how he dealt with Marvelous when their captain was ill (by eating them out of house and home) and in another part, he seemed to be actively apologising for not knowing how to make her feel better.

On the other hand, Luka still remembers Don coaxing her into eating congee, patiently but persistently feeding her spoonful after spoonful until she eventually felt better. It felt like an unexpected luxury, not unwelcomed, and for that, Luka _is_ grateful.

But Luka never dreams of being protected, simply because she's never had the opportunity to. Even when she looks at Don, who dangles safe, sweet domesticity like a promise, Luka knows that this is not the life for her.

Gai

Gai amuses her. He has an energy that matches hers, a never ending zest for life that Luka appreciates having lived so close to so much death. Truth be told, she likes his planet, untouched by the Zangyack and largely oblivious to the threat hanging over their heads. After seeing so many other planets ravaged by the technology-funneled space race, Luka is surprised to find that she has grown a soft spot for Gai's little ball of earth.

Likewise, Gai is slowly growing on her. It helps that he seems open to everything and everyone; even after that time when he barged in on her and Marvelous and Joe, and even though he was red as anything, he had the guts to ask her later if they really had that kind of relationship on the ship, and could he join, seriously. Luka still laughs at that, and teases him about it in full ear-shot of everyone. Gai gives it back to her as good as he gets though, and Luka enjoys the banter.

She has to be careful, though. Unlike the rest of them, Gai still has a home. Marvelous is sure to go elsewhere once the entire Great Treasure hunt is over, and Luka isn't sure if it's up to them to bring Gai along. For that, she keeps her distance away from him.

Perhaps, when everything is over and when Gai makes his decision, she might reconsider.

Ahim

"Some tea, Miss Luka?"

It's torture, Luka decides, of the highest order. She never finds out where Ahim got the kitty ears from, the ex-princess is stubbornly mum on that, although Luka suspects that it's Gai. She doesn't really want to find out, because she might kill Gai for that.

When Marvelous first brings Ahim on-board, Luka has to bite her tongue because it's captain's choice, and if the captain choses to rescue the princess of a dying planet, then it's his perogative. Luka makes it known, though, that there won't be anybody to serve her on the galleon (elbowing Don in the process to make her point) and if she wished it to, the gokaigers will be more than happy to find her another planet to live on.

Luka is grudgingly impressed when Ahim raises her head to look back at her steadily, eyes still red with fresh tears, and quietly, firmly replies that she will do no such thing. Marvelous simply watches their interaction while wearing that infuriating, smug smile, and at the end of it, declares that they're lifting off.

Ahim never seems to dwell on her planet's destruction, and if she did, Luka has never seen it. Instead, Ahim takes to pirate life rather readily, if a little off-kilter in her adaptation. She still retains much of her regal poise, and more often than not she throws their enemies off-guard with her polite speech patterns. It's a good tactic, Marvelous points out, plus, it makes it all the more satisfying when Ahim takes all of them down with a royal flourish.

It is to Ahim's credit, Luka thinks, that she never brings up that first antagonistic confrontation. Rather, she invites everyone to partake in her teas, and that is possibly the only princess-like thing they indulge her in. Even then, Ahim takes the role of the servant, blissfully content in making sure that everyone is happy in the single practice she brings to life from her home. In that, Luka thinks she sees where Ahim draws her strength from, and for all their stark differences, it's not unlike where Luka draws hers.

All in all, Luka doesn't indulge Ahim more than any of the others. But she cannot deny that Ahim coaxes a softer, girlier side out of her, one that Luka is genuinely surprised to discover she always had. Luka thinks she will still die before Ahim can persuade her into a dress, but who knows.

"Come here," she says finally, and when Ahim draws close, a cute frown knitting her eyebrows, Luka pulls her down and places a kiss on her lips. Ahim is soft and plush but Luka knows that underneath it all is an invincible summer that makes Ahim Ahim, fierce and alive and bright enough to burn through any winter, and Luka decides that maybe it's not such a bad thing to hold on to it, after all.


End file.
